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| photo courtesy of the Korea Table Tennis Association |
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| photo courtesy of the Korea Table Tennis Association |
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| photo courtesy of the Korea Table Tennis Association |
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The Korean table tennis youth team, which had the best performance at the World Youth Table Tennis Championships, returned to Incheon International Airport on the 1st.
The Korean table tennis youth team won a total of eight medals, including one gold, four silver, and three bronze, at the 2024 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Youth Championship held in Helsingborg, Sweden, from the 22nd to the 29th of last month. The number of medals was the same as last year's Nova Gorica competition, which won one silver month and seven bronze medals, but the purity was high.
Above all, the junior (U-19) women's team, which featured Yoo Nam-kyu, the second generation of the Korea Exchange's coach, Yoo Hae-rin (Hwasong Urban Corporation), and 'table tennis players, made the history of the first gold medal in the World Youth Championship in the team event. Yoo Hae-rin, Park Ga-hyun (Korean Air), Choi Na-hyun, and Kim Tae-min (Hosu-don Girls' High School) turned the Great Wall of China in the semifinals and beat Taiwan in the final to win an emotional victory. In the semifinals against China, `Yoon Nam-gyu II' Yoo Yeon-rin scored two points, and `Korean Air's youngest' Park Ga-hyun played his role as an ace, winning one point against China and two points against Taiwan. Park Ga-hyun is the coach of Hannam University, Park Kyung-soo, and Choi Na-hyun is the daughter of Daejeon Dongsan Middle School, and table tennis girls with superior 'table tennis DNA' caused an accident. On this day, all the family members of table tennis players, including head coach Yoo, Park Kyung-soo, and head coach Choi Joo-sung, attended the arrival hall at Incheon International Airport to celebrate the feat of their daughters'Women's Table Tennis'.
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| photo courtesy of the Korea Table Tennis Association |
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The individual event had medals in all doubles events. In the mixed doubles, U-19 (Oh Joon-sung and Park Ga-hyun) and U-15 (Lee Seung-soo and Choi Seo-yeon) won silver medals, while U-15 women's doubles (Choi Seo-yeon and Heo Ye-rim) and U-19 men's doubles (Kim Ga-on) also won silver medals. Kim Gaon (Duhogo) was paired with Japanese player Kazuki Yoshiyama to reach the final. Park Ga-hyun and Yoo Hae-rin, who collaborated for the women's junior team gold medal, won a bronze medal in the U-19 women's doubles. In the U-15 men's doubles, Lee Seung-soo and Ma Young-min-jo won the bronze medal, and Lee Seung-soo also won the bronze medal in the U-15 men's singles.
Kim Won-geun, coach of the youth national team (full-time coach of outstanding players under the national team), was not satisfied with the best performance ever. Despite the women's team performance, she expressed regret that she did not win more medals in individual singles. "The female junior players did a great job, but it was clearly revealed through the subsequent individual competitions that they should not be satisfied here" " It seems that both men and women need to make more efforts not to miss the modern table tennis trend, which emphasizes power and speed. I will finish this year well and play with the players with the mindset that I will start anew from 2025."
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
